Death from Above

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Death from Above

The amount of killing in Jagged Alliance may put some people off, but a higher principle is at work, one from the early days of Star Trek: guys in red shirts must die.

And they die by the hundreds as you command a team of mercenaries through an island's jungles, crouch behind trees, then tiptoe up behind unsuspecting red shirts and blast 'em.

But it's the higher-level economic aspect that makes this game a deep, time-eating challenge. You make money by recapturing parts of the island, and then spend it on mercenaries and workers.

The hiring pool ranges from whiny, approval-craving Mary Beth to drug-addled, forgetful Larry, to Fidel, an explosives expert who is suicidally single-minded in combat. You have to learn their quirks to build an affordable team for the job.

Jagged Alliance has its irritations. The voice characterizations can be cheesy: it's hard to tell whether Grunty is German or Irish, and Jack is given to Shatner-like fits of overacting. Also, it's far too easy to accidentally kill off a co-worker, amusing as it might be to hear Snake respond, "It's the right thing to do!" before shooting Ivan in the head.